Thursday, March 29, 2012

Some schools don't like multi-year scholarships ...

There's still not much hard evidence yet about which schools might be offering the new NCAA-approved multi-year scholarships to college football players. But the Austin American-Statesman's Kirk Bohls has a good article today about the entire issue. Bohls notes that some coaches argue that players with multi-year scholarships might become complacent and not work as hard to perform at their best if they know they won't lose those scholarships. With one-year renewable scholarships, they argue, student-athletes have something to work for, and therefore will be more accountable.

Guess that could be an issue for some players, but it's hard for me to believe it would be widespread, certainly not at a level to jeopardize the whole concept. Instead, multi-year scholarships would seem to be one of the few protections players have in world of Division I college football, where coaches have ultimate control over so much of their player's lives, and there is generally little room for players to appeal any coaching decision or behavior. For once, we have an NCAA that is looking out for players' best interest, even if it comes at the expense of the winning-at-any-cost mentality that permeates much of today's big-time college football.

See previous posts in this blog for more background on the multi-year scholarship issue.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

North Carolina ... paying the price for NCAA infractions

Taken verbatim from the NCAA, here's some more disheartening news for the college football world, including potential recruits:

"University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is responsible for multiple violations, including academic fraud, impermissible agent benefits, ineligible participation and a failure to monitor its football program, according to the decision announced today by the Division I Committee on Infractions.

"Over the course of three seasons, six football student-athletes competed while ineligible as a result of these violations, and multiple student-athletes received impermissible benefits totaling more than $31,000."

And here's a link to the full story, again from the NCAA itself.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Social media's big effect on the recruiting process ...

Social networking is rapidly changing the recruiting process, whether NCAA regulations keep up or not. Those regulations don't allow college coaches to text potential recruits, but they allow communications through the email function on Facebook. They also allow regular, direct email communications. But throw Twitter and other social networking capabilities and you've got a rapidly increasing number -- and difficult to police -- ways in which college coaches and even fans of college teams can and do communicate with potential recruits. A recent Killeen Daily Herald (Texas) article does a solid job presenting these issues. Check it out ... it's a good, informative read.